MPIP: Melanoma Patients Information Page

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The MPIP is the oldest and largest community of people affected by melanoma hosted through the Melanoma Research Foundation. It is designed to provide support and information to caregivers, patients, family and friends. Once you have been touched by melanoma—either as a patient or as a family member or friend of a patient—you become part of a community. It is not a community anyone joins willingly. But if you must be part of this group, you will find no better place to find the tools you need in your journey with this cancer, and the friends who can make that journey more bearable.

The information on the bulletin board is open and accessible to everyone. To add a new topic or to post a reply, you must be a registered user. Please note that you will be able to post both topics and replies anonymously even though you are logged in. All posts must abide by MRF posting policies.

My husband is stage 3 survivor. We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary by going hiking in the Grand Canyon. Sun protective clothing, SPF 70 sunscreen, hats and sunglasses....3 days and NO sunburns or tans. We had a ball! We never thought we could do such a thing. It is possible. :) There's life after melanoma! Yea!

The last two mornings I have been extremely dizzy. Once in the shower. Had to close my eyes and hold onto the shower door. Couldn't even open my eyes or move to sit down on the bench in the shower. This morning, my husband had to help me walk down the hall. I could not walk without his assistance, and even struggled with his help. But once I'm up a while, it seems fine. I mean I've been a little light-headed lately. But these two big episodes are only in the morning. If it was a brain met, wouldn't it give me trouble other times of the day too? I suppose I should call or email my doctor but wanted to run it by you all first. I am diabetic, but my glucose is pretty good and doesn't fluctuate much. After my dad's quadruple by-pass last month, we've all been on a pretty healthy diet.

Tumors express antigens that should induce immune-mediated rejection, but spontaneous rejection of established tumors is rare. Recent work demonstrates that one reason for the lack of tumor rejection is that tumors actively defeat host immunity. This concept forces us to rethink current approaches to harnessing potent, specific host immunity to battle cancer, most of which are based on the paradigm that inducing more antitumor immune cells alone is therapeutic. However, as I discuss in this Personal Perspective, a newer paradigm predicts that reducing tumor-driven immune suppression will be clinically beneficial. CD4+CD25+ Tregs are one mechanism of tumor-driven immune evasion that provide prototypical targets for testing novel anticancer treatment strategies within the newer paradigm.

AbstractIntroduction

Tumors express antigens that should induce immune-mediated rejection, but spontaneous rejection of established tumors is rare. Recent work demonstrates that one reason for the lack of tumor rejection is that tumors actively defeat host immunity. This concept forces us to rethink current approaches to harnessing potent, specific host immunity to battle cancer, most of which are based on the paradigm that inducing more antitumor immune cells alone is therapeutic. However, as I discuss in this Personal Perspective, a newer paradigm predicts that reducing tumor-driven immune suppression will be clinically beneficial. CD4+CD25+ Tregs are one mechanism of tumor-driven immune evasion that provide prototypical targets for testing novel anticancer treatment strategies within the newer paradigm.

This paper is one of the better ones for understanding the whole Treg Thing. Ipilimumasb and Interluekin-2 in combination will change the paradigm in novel anticancer treatment strategies as we see it today and may hold the key to durable remissions of melanoma.

This is really going to take some getting used to. Do you have to go back after each series of posts on one subject? I keep having to go back to the beginning to see the next post. Is there a next button that I am missing? I don't find this as user friendly or after 9 years I just knew what to expect on the old board.

Just got my husbands pathology report from his LND today, and I am curious what this means: "No areas of unequivocal capsular invation were demonstrated." That sounds like a good thing. Anyone know what "capsular invasion" is or if that tells us anything important?

Sorry if this is a dumb question or if I'm over-analyzing things. I just want to understand everything about it that I can.

5 of 28 nodes were positive. Amelanotic (same as primary 2 years ago) Currently Stage IIIC. He's on the road to recovery and looking forward to life as an NED-er again!

I had a bunch of checkups stacked up, but was nervous about "tweaks" near my surgical site. So in the last month I've seen my onco, dermatologist, surgeon, and have had a CT scan and a colonoscopy for good measure. Plus the usual xrays and bloodwork. All negative. Have a few spots on my liver that haven't budged since late 08, but who knows how long they've been there. So that's nothing new since November 08.

My surgeon told me that my tweaks were simply nerves in the area where there'd been cutting. BTW, he (Dr. Gershenwald) defies surgeon stereotypes--truly a great guy to talk to, and from everything I've seen and heard, a darn good cutter.

Gonna keep pounding the curcumin and enjoying each day. Y'all keep the faith.

In Stage IV melanoma patients, a high percentage of Tregs appears to be associated with shorter survival.

Remember I said "Blame it on the Tregs!!!"

Received 12 February 2008 published online 03 June 2008.

Background

Melanoma often elicits a profound immune response, and this response has been exploited by various immune therapies. These immunotherapies ultimately fail, however, and advanced melanoma is uniformly fatal, suggesting the development of an immune escape mechanism. In this study, markers of immune escape including regulatory T cells (Tregs), dendritic cells (DCs), and TGF-β were evaluated in 14 Stage IV melanoma patients and correlated with survival.

Stage IV melanoma patients had a doubling of regulatory T cells compared to both normal subjects and stage I melanoma patients. There was a significantly higher number of DCs in all melanoma patients compared to normal subjects. Stage I melanoma patients had a significantly higher number of pDCs than normal subjects, and all melanoma patients had a higher concentration of mDCs than controls. Serum IL-4 and IL-10 were not detectable but serum TGF-β levels were significantly higher in stage I and stage IV melanoma patients compared to normal controls.

Yesterday I noticed the info to the left of the messages indicating how many people are online. The number has varied from 50 to over 200! I find this new format difficult to learn too, but so many of you have knowledge, insight and compassion - don't give up on the board. Many people are counting on you.